How to Push Back Violence with Water

There’s no more basic need than water, and there’s no more basic equation, either. Water = Life.

There’s a beautiful story tucked away inside each water droplet. Water molecules don’t want to separate. They cling to each other. Especially at the surface—where there's no molecule on the other side to grab onto—they hold tight, creating a network able to resist forces pushing against them.

Here is how you are holding onto the people of Mosul, helping them resist the forces pushing against them:

This spring, you saw the fractured water pipes, uprooted and useless, and you showed up to rebuild them. Your fierce love helped to get those pipelines repaired and replaced, and you got water flowing again. Now in east Mosul, only one section of damaged piping remains within reach of ISIS sniper fire. When it's safe, that section will be repaired as well.

You’re also bringing water to just-liberated neighborhoods in west Mosul, where the fight against ISIS is still raging and the need is catastrophic. Our team makes sure the families with the greatest need get water first.

Over the last month, you trucked in over 2,225,000 liters of clean water for more than 70,000 people.

We’re going to need to keep trucking water for a while, here in west Mosul. And when this area is finally liberated, we’re going to need to rebuild pipes here too. The good news is that for now, 6,074 families have clean, pure, water, and so do several local health clinics. The good news is that it doesn’t cost much to make a lifesaving difference.

The cost of new pipes is about $.15 per person.The cost of a day’s worth of water is less than a dime.

Everyone can hold tight to the people of Mosul.

My kindergartener can hold tight to them with the sticky pennies he hoards in a tiny box. He loves to count and recount them to make sure they are all still there, so that a kindergartener in Mosul can have a drink of water.

My teenager can hold tight to teenagers in Mosul by sending them hope for the future with the loose change he rummages out from under his bed. For less than the cost of one water bottle at a grocery store in the US, we can unmake violence and bring water to a family of fellow human beings.

Thank you for holding so tightly to the people of Mosul. Thank you for pushing back against violence with love and with life-giving water.